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The Army was called in as Heathrow suspended all departures on Tuesday due to reported drone sightings just weeks after a similar debacle caused chaos at Gatwick.

The London airport halted all outbound flights at around 5pm as a "precautionary measure" to "prevent any threat to operational safety".

They were given the all clear around an hour later, as staff said they would continue to monitor the situation and government sources said they remained on standby.

The military was brought in after police officers reported seeing a drone at Heathrow and a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "We are deploying specialist equipment to Heathrow Airport at the request of the Metropolitan Police."

Commander Stuart Cundy of the Met said: "Police officers were amongst those who saw the drone and a full criminal investigation has been launched.

"We are carrying out extensive searches around the Heathrow area to identify any people who may be responsible for the operation of the drone," he said.

"I want to be clear that the illegal operation of drones at an airfield is extremely dangerous. "Under the Aviation Security Act it is an offence to endanger the safety of an aircraft, anyone found guilty of this offence could face a life sentence.

"We are deploying significant resources - both in terms of officers and equipment - to monitor the airspace around Heathrow and to quickly detect and disrupt any illegal drone activity; some of which are as a result of learning from the incidents at Gatwick.

"Following today's sighting, military assistance has been implemented to support us. However, we will not be discussing in any further detail the range of tactics available to us as this would only serve to potentially undermine their effectiveness."

A police vehicle by the perimeter fence at HeathrowCredit:
David Dyson

Brian Strutton, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) said: "This second drone incident in less than a month has shown how important it is that airports invest in drone protection technology immediately.

"The Government should ensure that every airport does so in the interests of public safety and should accelerate and strengthen its other drone legislation planned for later this year. It's time to act swiftly and decisively.

"An aircraft or helicopter collision with a drone has the potential to be catastrophic and so it's right that Heathrow shut until it was sure flights could take off and land safely again. While it may be frustrating for the passengers who are delayed, it's their safety that must come first."

Transport minister Chris Grayling said during the incident: "We are in contact with Heathrow Airport concerning the drone sighting. "I have already spoken to both the Home Secretary and Defence Secretary and the military are preparing to deploy the equipment used at Gatwick at Heathrow quickly should it prove necessary."

A Heathrow spokesman said: "We continue to work closely with the Met Police to respond to reports of drones at Heathrow. "Based on standard operating procedures, working with Air Traffic Control and the Met Police, we have resumed departures out of Heathrowfollowing a short suspension.

"We continue to monitor this situation and apologise to any passengers that were affected by this disruption."

The drone sighting came four days after both Heathrow and Gatwick airports reported they were investing millions of pounds in equipment to prevent future flight disruption.

A British Airways aircraft sits on the tarmac at Heathrow AirportCredit:
HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS

On Monday, the Government had announced that police and airports will be given new powers to shoot down, catch and jam drones in a bid to prevent a repeat of the chaos that plagued Gatwick over the Christmas period.

Between December 19 and 21, the airport was repeatedly forced to close due to reported drone sightings, causing mass disruption to passengers, with about 1,000 flights affected.

The Army was brought in to help deal with the travel chaos and was not stood down until after Christmas.

Despite the relatively brief suspension on Tuesday, airline staff at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 warned that some flights may have to be cancelled because of landing curfews in foreign cities.

A senior member of airport staff said on Tuesday evening that the overall disruption was “minimal” and that only a handful of flights were affected.

It could not be confirmed how many, if any, flights had been cancelled because of the suspected drone.

“There are flights cancelled every day, for many reasons,” they said. “We cannot say that any cancellation was because of a drone sighting, because it may well have been for a mechanical fault on an aircraft at the same time. That is a question for the individual airlines.”

British Airways, the biggest carrier operating at heathrow had at least 40 flights delayed by half an hour or more, but confirmed that it did not cancel any flights this evening.

A British Airways aircraft sit on the tarmac at HeathrowCredit:
REUTERS

Staff from Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic all reported minimal disruption with the only delays caused by late inbound flights.

Typically, flights are only allowed to take off and land within certain hours, to help ease noise pollution in areas near major airports.

At least 40 British Airways flights faced delays of more than 30 minutes after missing their departure slots.

There was panic as news of the suspected drone sighting filtered through to passengers sitting on the tarmac awaiting departure.

Charlie Hammond, 21, was on board on a delayed British Airways flight to Hong Kong when he was made aware of the breaking news.

The student, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, said: ""Everybody was tapping away on their phones. Some were furious - I could feel anxiety in the air."

Oleg Vornik, chief executive officer of Australian-based DroneShield, which uses high-tech equipment to protect against drones, warned that similar problems were likely in the near future.

"Gatwick has shown to prospective copy-cats around the world that you can easily disrupt major piece of infrastructure such as an international airport,” he said.

There were no departures for an hour amid reports of a drone sightingCredit:
@JournoDannyAero/Twitter

"And they are likely be able to get away with impunity, due to the target having no protection to detect, localise and defeat the drone threat.

"This is only the beginning, and follows on what now has been a couple of years of escalating drone incidents at airports.”

Mr Grayling this week announced that he is seeking changes to the law which would allow officers to rapidly respond to and thwart drone attacks, including the ability to search premises of suspects and require users to produce documentation similar to a driver's licence.

He is also planning to expand the no-fly zones around airports and prisons, amid fears that drones are increasingly being used to deliver drugs and other prohibited items to inmates.

Ministers have also announced that from November 30, operators of drones weighing between 250g and 20kg will be required to register and take an online drone pilot competency test.

Police will also be able to issue fixed-penalty notices for minor drone offences to ensure immediate and effective enforcement of the new rules.

Fines of up to £100 could be given for offences such as failing to comply with a police officer when instructed to land a drone, or not showing their registration to operate a drone.